


Crystal Knights

by Dartz (The_Fenspace_Collective)



Series: Candle In The Dark: A Peculiar Saga of the Sea of Time [7]
Category: BattleTech: MechWarrior, Fenspace
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 09:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1423987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fenspace_Collective/pseuds/Dartz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The Great Pirate Invasion Suite:</i> "Meanwhile, remember that one jumpship that appeared at the Sol-Venus pirate point? That ship, the Barn, belonged to a group of mid-ranked mercs best known for daring raids. They also figured that ransacking a couple domed habitats would be more lucrative than fighting off a dozen different pirate bands for a small slice of the larger pie. Appearing where they were, they had an almost unimpeded approach to the Crystal Cities. Almost unimpeded not being the same as actually unimpeded: the legendary vigilantes-slash-mercenaries the Knight Sabers were lying in wait for any pirates dumb enough to take a shot at Venus." (Candle in the Dar, Ch. 6)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crystal Knights

### Fenspace, 7 December 3020

**_XR-71_ , Tellus Cislunar**

The monstrous egg lumbered through space, unimpeded by a trio of missiles bursting across its hull. It pushed on, seemingly impervious.

_XR-71_ dodged around the sparking remains of a _Lancer_ ’s wing, trailing burning embers from a gash in the starboard engine nacelle. Laser and PPC fire glittered in the dark where they vaporised shards of debris, reaching out towards the wildly maneuvering cruiser. _XR’_ s own guns fired in short, thudding bursts, spitting smoke and flame. Brass shell cartridges spun, still smoking, out of ejector ports in the chinaries. A ripple of explosions splashed up the side of the _Overlord_ , doing little apparent damage.

A single beam brushed against the right chinary, searing the heat shield a dull red and stripping the upper plating. A reaction control tank ruptured in a puffball of superheated propellants, throwing embers spiralling into the black. Induced currents raced through the hull searching for paths to ground themselves. In the cockpit, a brilliant arc of electric blue burst over the co-pilot’s head showering her with incandescent sparks.

“The fuck was that?” Ford Sierra demanded from the pilot’s seat. Her face glistened with sweat. Something _gonked_ against the upper hull. Both looked up for a moment. Smoke drifted in the air, carrying the acrid smell of burnt electronics with it.

“The right reactor. It’s thrown a rod.” Elpeo replied. She didn’t sound half as frightened as he really was. She almost sounded giddy with excitement.

Ford grit her teeth and pushed the throttles on the engines as far as they’d go forward, throwing the ship hard over into a roll, breaking off the attack run. “Today would be a bad day to die,” she said.

The acrid sweetness of burning plastic tainted the air inside her helmet as some minor overstressed system gave up for good. She thought to switch to the flightsuit’s internal systems, the smell fading away as it was filtered out. An orange light on her panel warned her of a filtration failure, mixing with an engine oil leak.

Still, the _XR-71_ was, to Ford’s great surprise, holding its own. The big Blackbird had long since been retired from a combat role, it’s weapons and missile bays replaced with mounts for auxiliary engines and testing equipment. It was a test-mule from new propulsion modules.

When the call had gone out, it had taken two days to adapt the dual-autocannon to the dorsal drone mount. A pair of 90mm guns capable of firing two armour piercing shells every half second - they were one of the few weapons capable of denting spheroid aerospace armour.

The mercenary part of her mind filed this fact away for later use. There was money in guns.

Every single thumping shot sent shudders through the titanium spaceframe, rattling panels and shaking rivets loose.The old warbird seemed almost happy to be in the thick of things again, slicing through the furball like a black dagger, picking fights with some of the aerospace jocks amongst the spheroids, then racing away from the response, aware all them time that all it would take was one solid hit to shatter the _XR_  around them.

It was almost a game really.

A thrilling deadly game of Bulldog where everyone swarmed it at once, overwhelming with more numbers than could be shot, then rushing out again praying they wouldn’t be the one to get caught on the way out. There were a few moments to catch your breath, give thanks you were still alive, then sweep back down to run the heartstopping gauntlet all over again.

She latched on behind a stub-winged fighter trailing sparks from a damage thruster. Even from a distance away she could see how badly it’d been beaten up, but all the same, how superficial the damage was. It was blackened and scored, but still mostly there and still functioning.

“Keep me on it! Keep me on it!” Elpeo begged her. “Keep on his tail!”

Ford struggled to keep the big blackbird behind the wildly maneuvering spheroid fighter. It’s a-drive made it slow to accelerate, but let it pull the sort of stunts the speed-driven blackbird struggled to do. They could change their vector in a hurry, but couldn’t change facing. The spheroid had the opposite problem - he had to burn a massive amount of fuel to change his direction and speed of travel, but could point the nose of his fighter any which way he saw fit and let inertia do the rest.

Ford watched it spin on a top, plinking harrying Zigs with its own guns. The little Zigs didn’t even explode… fiberglass bodies disintegrating into little puffballs of plastic and steel. One, two, three, destroyed with a practised choreography of thruster and gunfire.

She was keenly aware that she was a rank amateur dealing with a professional.

Ford pushed her attack anyway, lining it up in the centre of her cockpit windows. Behind her, she could hear the gunmount’s servos whining to bring the gun to bear.

“Firing!” Elpeo announced.

_XR’s_ guns woke up, spitting heavy shells that thudded into the flank of the spheroid fighter, sparks of hot metal marking the points where they penetrated.

It carried on unwounded for a moment, thrusters firing to turn it to face its new attacker. Ford punched her engines to full power, accelerating hard to turn to a perpendicular course, hoping to put herself out of the line of fire. Her heart rose in her mouth - a sick feeling that she was facing the last few moments of her life before it could turn and shoot.

It all seemed to slow right down, giving her ample time to study its menacing visage as she accelerated towards its nose. She could see its guns jutting out, barrels still glowing red hot. Steam rose from a damaged heatsink pack. She thought she could even see the pilot behind his cockpit glass, the pair of them looking right at each other, eye-to-eye.

Ford hauled on the control column, making one last attempt to get out of the way.

For a few brief moments, a new sun lit up above her head as the fighter’s ammunition bays exploded in a brilliant, white fireball, dissipating rapidly into glowing sparks of burned metal and freezing vapour, leaving Ford staring dumbfounded, wondering what had happened.

“Got one!” Elpeo shrieked. “Ple scores again!”

Ford snapped out of it immediately Tracers flashed past her window. Ford glanced in the mirror, holding her breath.

“Don’t get cocky! We’ve got another one coming up behind us.”

The was the last thing she said before some great hand seemed to take hold of her and give her the hardest body-slap she’d ever experienced, chased by a sound that reminded her of a giant coke-can being crushed.

She had just enough time to wonder what she’d hit before her helmet struck the cockpit frame, knocking her out cold.

 

 

 

~***~

“We’re in position,” Anika reported with a smug grin.  “Scanners to LPI mode, It’d take a _Stallion_ to spot us.”

“Now?” Daryl asked.

“We wait,” said Jet.

“And if nothing shows up, we’re hot-footing it to the main show?”

Jet nodded. “If nothing shows up here They’ll need help on the ground war.” The cyber’s gaze was still straight ahead out the window in front of her. The _KnightWing_ was no use in a straight up fight. “Lets just hope a couple of them want to get clever. An intact dropship full of mechs will be worth a lot.”

Kotono sighed. “Hopefully it pays a lot too.”

Jet was still staring out the window. “I just hope it isn’t too expensive.”

 

 

 

~***~

**SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET**

**Gamma 2 Great Justice ONLY.**

_Document cleared for General Release as presented. Approval WETH 2A74. Reason: Legitimate FOI Request ref: 20714-RHD._

Mission Report: Operation BUCCANEER.

Author: [________]

Aims: To potentially capture intact one or more enemy Dropships and their attendant contents. To prevent an enemy landing in the Crystal Cities of Venus. A tertiary objective was to minimise casualties among experienced enemy personnel.

Expected Conditions: It was expected that the brunt of enemy forces would be concentrated in the cislunar area. It was deemed likely that any force attacking the Venusian system would be opportunistic and small. Expected composition was a single jumpship, with a maximum of three dropships. It was believed that a stealth spacecraft [__________] would be capable of approaching the attacking dropships undetected, whereupon it would then be capable of inserting a team of operatives, who would then assault the vessel and subdue the crew. Resistance board the enemy vessel was expected to be spirited at first, but ultimately unskilled.

Should no attack on Venus occur, [__________] was to proceed at maximum speed to the Earth system, and assist in the ground defense of Earth.

Operational Details:

[__________] arrived at staging point 25 hours prior to the expected emergence of enemy vessels. Primary systems were shut down to minimise power signature. [________] was activated. After 27 hours, the first trace of KF emergence was detected.

Approximately three minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, a _Merchant_ class jumpship emerged at the Venus/Sun L1 point ( _JS The Barn)_. One _Union_ class dropship ( _DS Iron Chariot_ ) and one _Leopard_ class dropship ( _DS Jenny_ ) were docked with the enemy jumpship.

[__________] remained at standby until both enemy dropships had disengaged from the jumpship and had maneuvered clear. The enemy at this point believed that they had achieved surprise and commenced their acceleration towards Venus. After ten minutes, [__________] began to maneuver to intercept.

[Section Redacted]

 

 

 

~***~

_Tap tap tap tap tap...._

Jet Jaguar tapping her finger against the console was the only sound in the cockpit of the _KnightWing._ The cyber herself was in two places at once, and desperate to be in a third. Her puppet was in the aft compartment, preparing its hardsuit. She’d taken the co-pilot’s seat herself to monitor sensor displays on a drop down monitor, and was supposed to be watching the two dropships ahead.

Both were blue sparks in the window where the fusion drives were burning hard.

Instead, she stared almost glass-eyed at sensor data coming from the cislunar battle. Icons swarmed in around each other, looping and diving in. Each one was accompanied by names and ID’s. Destroyed ships flashed up red before disappearing from the screen. Each destroyed craft was listed to the side of main window

The list was growing quickly. Weapons fire flashed up yellow where it was detected. Icons reported damage, or impact. Some wheeled away and out trailing spaghetti lines tracing their vectors. Others went red for a few moments, then disappeared and joined the list.

Anika saw the change in her expression, a shiver that ran through her body like cold steel through the heart.

Her finger stopped.

She sat for a few seconds, drawing a deep breath of air in through her nostrils. Every single structure of her body screamed to punch out and _GO_ as the bulkheads pinned her down harder and harder into the chair.

She slammed the monitor shut, rattling the overhead panels.

“Don’t frighten me like that,” said Anika

Jet just threw her a slightly vacant look, before returning her gaze to the windows ahead. “Keep us on course.”

“We’re closing at a kilometre a minute. Five minutes to intercept.”

“What is it?”

Jet blinked, realizing it was Anika speaking to her puppet. Her train of thought had been completely derailed. Keeping up with two bodies was tough when you were preoccupied by something else.

“Nothing.” she answered, taking care to make sure it was the right body.

“Any news from Cislunar?” asked Daryl. “The _Witch of Endor?_ ”

A small part of her was terrified that somehow, asking about their fate would seal it somehow, a perverse analogue of Schrodinger’s cat. But she had to know...

“Damaged, she’s withdrawing from the fight.” Jet answered, privately glad for the filtering effect the Puppet could have on her natural expression. Her lip still stiffened involuntarily. “The battle’s going like we expected.”

Anika looked up at Kotono, who was sucking on her bottom lip, trying to keep from saying anything at all. Daryl tried to run her fingers through her hair, hoping it’d somehow brush the worries from her mind, but an armoured manipulator didn’t do so well at that.

All four were dressed and ready in their armour. Anika’s scanner arrays were conspicuously stowed. A single stray signal at the wrong moment would blow everything. Daryl fixed a charm bracelet around her hardsuit’s wrist. Kotono whispered an old poem to herself. Anika finished some final self checks.

And nobody said a word aloud.

Jet closed her eyes, doing her best to be aware of the puppet body. The fuselage was still crushing down on her, no matter how much she tried to ignore it. She did her best to put that aside.

Focus on the here and now. Focus on the mission.

“Look, I know we’d all rather be over there too... believe me, so would I. But we’ve a job to do right here and now. Capturing one of those droppers and its contents intact will be invaluable.... even just stopping one of them from reaching Venus will save a lot of lives. That’s all that matters right now.” The puppet paused. “Check your helmet, check your suits. We launch in three.”

“Right!” Daryl barked. “Let’s do this thing right. Do it for the history books.” She fired herself up as best she could, trying to burn away her own worries. She had to tuck her hair in to get her helmet to lock down right, cursing under her breath about how much it hurt.

“Too bad our real names won’t be used,” Kotono forced a sigh, wearing an imitation of a wan small. Her helmet slipped over her head, locking down onto the neck ring.

“But that would ruin the mystery,” Anika chimed in with a giggle.. “And mysteries make history.” She was smiling as he face disappeared behind the painted metal of her visor.

“I’ve made enough history anyway,” the puppet shrugged. The helmet locked down, core systems bootstrapping themselves in a hurry. It might’ve all been as hollow as a Hollywood set, but it helped.

“Systems check?”

“All green,” three voices answered.

The bay doors opened on schedule, exhausting the atmosphere inside. The _KnightWing_ pitched nose down relative to both dropships to hide the radar signature of the cargo bays from detection. Outside, space beckoned.

“Knight Sabers, _sanjo!_ ”

Four hardsuits boosted into the darkness riding jets of white gas. Moments later, the motorslaves followed from the aft bay.

 

 

 

~***~

[__________] ultimately approached to within one kilometre of _DS Iron Chariot_ , before commencing the operation. The enemy did not detect the signature of the opening [_________]. Operatives proceeded to the enemy under their own power, taking fifteen minutes and forty one seconds to cross the distance under thruster power. As expected, enemy sensors were unable to detect such small drive signatures.

Access to the enemy spacecraft was gained through use of a [___________] on an exposed airlock. Upon gaining entry [Section Redacted]

 

 

 

~***~

“They were there for a second... then gone.”

The sensor operator replayed the data onscreen, twisting his overlong hair between his fingers.

“What were?”

The captain leaned in over his shoulder, the weight of the elder man pressing down hard onto the operator’s shoulder. Elliot Barn, going gray despite being the junior of the two brothers that operated the Barnstormers, had every reason to be cautious.

It was all going far too well.

“Warbook is giving an error message. Eight signatures, merged into four, then disappeared into our baffles.”

They darted across the screen, wheeling into the deadzone behind the dropship caused by interference from the burning engine’s exhaust. With its engines running at full burn, a _Union_ was effectively blind in broad cone trailing aft,

Still. They were too small to be manned craft.

“Signatures are about twice the size of a human. Too small to be a fighter. But definitely metallic.

“Debris?” The first officer suggested. “Really.”

The Captain gave him a withering look. “Too controlled.”

“Mines of some kind then? Could we have stumbled on some cold drone craft?”

The operator considered it. He shook his head slowly. “Drones would’ve been detected..... these literally came from nowhere.”

Captain Barn sat back down into his command chair, resting his chin on a single hand. He was an image of The Thinker, without even intending to be. “Contact the _Jenny_... trade data. Try and filter through it. They had to come from somewhere. They might have some form of stealth.”

Stealth in space was the only logical conclusion. In theory impossible, but if there was one thing his father had taught him, impossible was just another way of saying ‘hadn’t been done yet.’

“Aye cap’n.” The comm’s operator busied herself over her panel.

“I’ve got something!” Everyone’s eyes locked on to operator with the accuracy of a Star League missile. “It’s thermal, less than half a klick away. A spike for a second... like a thruster exhaust. Hadn’t been looking right at it, I would’ve mis....”

The first explosion sent juddering shockwaves resonating through the deck. Nobody standing remained on their feet.

“Missile?” Captain Barn yelled above the din as chaos broke out around him. Alarms squealed for attention as the rest of the crew clamoured to get their wits back.

The second explosion ripped through the hull a moment later, flooring everyone once again. The floor began to spin beneath them as the stars outside streaked and blurred.

“Second airlock breached!” a voice shouted up above the commotion.

The third explosion seemed to come out of the captain’s mouth.

“Boarded! We’re being boarded!”

Someone still had their wits about them. The intruder alarm started to belt out mere moments later.

“Repel! Repel! Get someone to the airlock now!”

Lunatics. Lunatics boarding a spacecraft in flight. More alarms joined the chorus, signaling depressurizations cutting through the core of the ship. Another _crump_ shook the deckplates under his feet, another alarm joining the chorus swirling around

“Raise the...”

“Comm’s down!” he was interrupted.

“Pull back to the mech-bay, to the reactor rooms. They’re trying to take the ship!”

He had to get ahead of the attack,

“Captain, the enemy are using..... they’re using exoskeletons.” A pause. She adjusted her headset, “Wait... Battlemechs. Don’t be stupid and tell me the truth..... Hey... Hey. You still there?”

Gunfire rippled around him, a few bursts spitting out before being silenced by a series of heavy, grain-sack thuds.

The comm’s operator fiddled with her headset. “I’ve lost everything Captain. It’s being jammed internally.”

He could feel himself go cold, his skin breaking out into goosebumps.

“Lock the doors. Arm yourselves. Try rig up a signal lamp of some sort, we have to warn the _Jenny_.”

They had handguns and not much more than that. It wouldn’t hold a determined boarding party off for long. Still, for the company and all that. And maybe that hothead on the _Jenny_ would listen.

“I’ve got the external lights. I can send Morse code.” The gunner flicked at a switch on the panel in front of him. “Might be sending them dimensions from the latest Spank for how rusty I am with it.”

A few chuckles circled the bridge. It helped break the ice cold atmosphere.

Another distant blast rattled the deckplates and the lights went out. Emergency lights came up with a click, illuminated the darkened control panels.

“Did you get it sent?”

“They haven’t acknowledged Cap’n.”

Gunfire got closer. He could hear something stomping around outside, deckplates reverberating beneath it’s footsteps. He glanced at the door just in time for it to explode open.

A chaotic swirl of gunfire snapped around him, booming in the confined space of the bridge. Hot muzzle flashes strobed, making it hard to focus. He thought he saw the comm’s officer’s head burst as she raised her pistol. He saw what looked to be some sort of miniature battlemech, being chased by.... something.

It was there for one flash, then gone. The mini-mech’s gun was leveled and ready to shoot. It had six barrels, whirring as they spun. The gunner got a rasp of shots off. Everything went dark for a moment. Barn heard a man scream. Light returned just long enough for him to see his gunner getting thrown through the air like a ragdoll, seemingly propelled by a jet of his own blood.

It went dark again. The ghost of that image was burned into his retina.

A moment later, a cold steel blade was against his neck, attached to what appeared to be a woman in some sort of form fitting armour. Streak of blood were splashed over the white metal. In black embossed letters, he just about managed to comprehend the words ‘Knight Sabers’.

“Ah....” he managed to say.

“If your next two words aren’t ‘I surrender’, I’m going to have to polish my armor again.”

Her face was obscured by a visor. The blade was horrifically sharp.

“You win.” he said, taking a few a moments for his mind to catch up. He was too stunned to be angry... his mind was still stuck processing the fact that his ship was under attack, and the battle was already over

It was only then that he noticed the strobe lights scattered on the floor. They stuck on, illuminating the bridge once more.

“What are your terms?”

“Unconditional. You will be turned over to a local authority and treated as prisoners of war. Anything else, depends on what our employers decide.”

That faceplate hid her expression, but he could still feel the coldness of her gaze. The remains of his bridge crew seemed frozen in place by the shock of it.

“You’re mercenaries?”

“We are the Knight Sabers.”

 

 

 

~***~

The enemy captain accepted the terms as offered, turning his vessel and its contents over to our control. Attempts were made to contact _DS Jenny_ to discourage them from continuing with their landing. _HMS Hotspur_ began pursuit, attempting to engage the enemy vessel in combat and prevent their landing.

_DS Iron Chariot_ was turned over to a prize crew sent from _HMS Lydia_ , who formally claimed her as a prize in the name of the Crystal Millennium three hours and fifteen minutes after commencement of operation. With the ship secured by friendly forces. [_____________] then departed from _DS Iron Chariot_ , returning to [__________].

Operation was declared complete at 13:35 VST. Journey time to Earth from the present location was deemed to be too great to be capable of arriving in time to have a significant effect on the ground conflict. Therefore, it was decided to return to base.

 

 

 

~***~

**Dropship Jenny**   
**Lost In The Clouds**

Two of the main engines were damaged, and gravity was going it's inexorable thing.The best they could hope for was a rough landing on whatever ground they found beneath. The sensor panels had been offline ever since the final volley from that enemy ship had hit home. About all they knew was that it was hot out... hotter than hell. Lightning flickered in the clouds beyond the viewport. Thick air pulled on the vessel's hull, slowing them far below their usual stall speed.

“Inner Sphere vessel,” the traffic controller hailed once more “You will be unable to land. We are willing to render assistance.”

The bridge windows lit up with a flash of lightning, chased by a thunderbolt that rocked the entire dropship

“Turn it off,” Jennifer snarled.

“Captain,” said Bo’sun Higgs, still struggling not to find her painfully intimidating. The pressure outside’s already above eight atmospheres Captain.

“We have to get on the ground, or we don’t have a chance. If they can survive down there, so can we.”

In thicker air, maybe they'd reach the equilibrium point where the stub-wings would generate enough lift to keep the dropper aflight before they imploded. Maybe the remaining engine would stay lit. The ship shook once more, lightning filling the viewports. Thunder burst all around, grabbing at the hull of the aerodyne like some giant hand.

Everything on the bridge went dark. Sickly orange light flooded in through the windows as glowing clouds streamed past.

“No power!” The bo’sun yelled. “The breakers have gone. Heat sinks at overload.”

“Pull the nose up!” The captain ordered. She was starting to visibly sweat.

“Engines offline.”

“Pitch for glide. Use the ram turbines for pressure. Just get us on the ground then.”

Hopefully, not too far beneath them. Nobody wanted to find out just how much pressure it took to collapse a dropship hull - not when they were the one's inside it.

“Pressure’s still increasing Captain. It’s going past fifteen atmospheres.”

She held her jaw firm, trying to hide her fear. “Get me power. Tell those limp-dicked spanners we need power now or we’re all dead.”

The hull groaned beneath the stress. Something popped, ricocheting around behind the panels. Rivets started to pop like steel popcorn rattling around between the inner and outer hulls.

“Twenty atmospheres. Airspeed indicator’s frozen. Altimeter offline. Engines offline. Heatsinks at saturation. We’ve...”

He was interrupted by the sharp snap of glass splitting. A bright glowing slash crawled across the viewport until it joined both short edges.

“Bugger me,” he sighed, resigning himself to his fate.

A look of abject horror passed across the Captain’s face. She saw the glass explode inwards, engulfing the bo’sun. It was chased by a fist of solid sulphurous heat punching through. Captain Jennifer Mayfair had one last chance to scream before hell itself embraced her in its crushing grip.

Then there was nothing.

The dropship Jenny made an exit with a bang, its implosion being loud enough to be picked up as a pressure spike on Crystal Tokyo’s barometers, fifty kilometres away.

 

~***~

Operational results:

Overall operational success was achieved. Primary objective was met. _DS Iron Chariot_ was secured, along with a _Thunderbolt_ , a _Warhammer_ , a _Marauder_ , and an _UrbanMech_ , as well as a _Lightning_ and _Hellcat_ aerospace fighter.

Friendly casualties and material losses were negative.

Enemy casualties: 35% killed, 5% wounded, 60% unharmed. The majority of enemy mechwarriors and engineering personnel aboard _DS Iron Chariot_ survived to be taken prisoner. Enemy prisoners are held in custody by the Sailor Armed Militia as POWs.

_DS Jenny_ imploded roughly 25 kilometers above Niobe Planitia and impacted with the surface six minutes later. ROVs belonging to the Venus Terraforming Project surveyed the wreck at impact +2 hours. No signs of survivors were seen, and damage to the vehicle indicated that all internal pressure compartments were compromised upon implosion. Due to environmental conditions no major salvage of _DS Jenny_ is believed to be possible at this time. The wreck is expected to remain in recognizable condition until sometime in 2070.

Addendum: We are unable to claim the surviving target as a prize without compromising organizational security. However, we would like to request access to a sample of the materiel aboard, for training development purposes.

 

 

 

~***~

_**KnightWing,** _ **Approaching Tellus Cislunar**

“As far as anyone else is concerned, we’re the _Luminous Stardust,”_ said Anika, “The transponder’s set.”

“Thanks. Keep scanning.”

The cyber stared dead ahead as she guided the ship through the wreckage, hoping her eyes were sharper than the ship’s sensor. Debris flickered past the windows. Sparks and shards of tinfoil caught the sunlight, a thousand steel fireflies spiralling past.

She didn’t move except to steer around the remains of something that looked like it had once been an AEUG cruiser. One of the launch platforms and most of the superstructure had been replaced by scorched and tangled wreckage.

Daryl broke the silence. “It’s like Wolf 359.”

Still in her hardsuit, she leant down against the back Pilot’s chair, resting on her crossed arms.

Anika peered through the glass, aghast at the destruction. “That’s the _Argama._ The _Pegasus._ The _Reinforce Junior._ The _Witch of Endor_. _Melbourne, Kyus..._ ”

Daryl pulled her out of the way, hard enough to wrench her shoulder. The android yelped.

“The _Witch_? Any signs of life.?”

The hulk was drifting, trailing wisps of smoke and atmosphere from deep gashes cut along her side. Dim red light spilled out through the openings where the emergency lights were still on.

Anika checked her sensors. “I’m picking up low level magnetic fields. Heat flux suggests there’s still an atmosphere aboard.”

“I’m going.”

She stared Jet down, fulling expecting the cyber to throw up some sort of objection based on Knight Saber secrecy and ready to throw down with an accusation of hypocrisy. Jet barely even glanced away, giving her a curt nod.

“Me too.” Kotono added. “I’ll bring one of the medkits. They might need help.”

They sealed the aft compartment behind them, before blasting out into space in their hardsuits. Servo’s whined through the frame as the bomb bay doors.

The _KnightWing_ cruised through the debris, ducking around aft section of another Lancer that’d been blasted in two. Jet’s finger tapped on the throttle.

“I’ve got a radiation trail!” Anika announced. “Fission products. A lot of gamma radiation.”

“Let me see,”

Jet fumbled with flailing seatbelts for a second, before finally managing to clamber out of the restraints and around the chair. She leaned down on top of Anika’s hardsuit, looking over her shoulder at the sensor readouts.

“That’s the _XR-71_ alright. The containment was breached. Someone overrode the shutdown.” She reached in, pushing at a few buttons to double check. “To get an isotope signature like that they would have to’ve been running at full power.”

Anika shouldered her off gently

“Plot it for me,” said Jet, her voice hard and cold as ice.

“Sent it.”

The _KnightWing_ heeled over to follow the trail.

Anika was worried, a dozen possibilities flying through her mind, each one ending with the same inevitable conclusion. But Jet looked almost terrified. Like she was staring down an oncoming train with no way of avoiding it.

“High intensity radiation source,” Anika announced. “Gamma detector is offscale high. Right side. About 3 kilometres away. ”

It was glowing red with heat. The reactor core was exposed to open space, spewing radiation and fission products as it spiralled. It suggested a far more horrific fate than death by decompression.

“I’ve got them!”

Anika grinned wide.

“Where?” Jet snapped.

“A hundred kilometres ahead.... but...”

The cheer drained right out of her voice. Jet saw her face go white....

“But what?”

“Heat flux is too low. No electromagnetics. Signature return size is -” She stopped dead, a cold shiver in her voice. “I think it’s been broken in two.”

Jet was already making her way to the aft hatch with unstoppable purpose.

 

 

 

~***~

Ford tapped at the digital gauge on her pressure suit. Redzone. Five minutes. It refused to increase. Maybe if she held her breath? The control panels were dark without power. Hot sunlight flooded in through the window, silhouetting the Earth and moon.

Elpeo had gone asleep - the android would survive. Even if it took decades to find her, she could still be revived. Ford didn’t have that sort of luck.

Ford watched as the gauge ticked down. Four minutes. She disabled the final alarm on purpose.

She was calm inside. It wasn’t the first time. She finished tapping out a quick message on the keypad for her suit’s controller – one she still hoped nobody would ever get to read – then closed her eyes and did her level best not to panic.

The adrenaline in her body had long since faded, leaving behind a sick nausea and the horrible desire to just go home and see everyone again.

Last time, she’d begged right up until the last minute for salvation, right until the alarm sounded. With nothing but black space around and no sign of any ship, she finally made peace with death.

Only for rescue to arrive at the last possible second.

If rescue came, it would come. There was nothing she could do now except sit and wait and see what happened.

Something flickered outside her eyes. She willed it to go away, but it insisted. Her eyes shot open, to be met with a harsh bright light that seemed to illuminate her soul. It physically hurt to stare into it. A sharp intake of breath filled her chest.

“Ford, Ford... are you alive?” Jet’s voice. On the emergency channel no doubt. “Goddammit if you’re not dead I’ll fucking kill you for this.”

The light died a moment later, allowing her to get her first good look at the cyber, leaning against the window in front of her decked out in white armor, naked relief written across her face. Like someone who’d just woken up from staring their worst nightmare in the face to find it was a horrible dream.

She managed the weakest of smiles, keying open a channel. “Jet..... We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”


End file.
